Timeline
by down on fire
Summary: Caroline can see her life in shades of Tyler. — TylerCaroline.


Disclaimer: disclaimed.  
>Notes: written a while ago, overly sweet at places. enjoy! :)<p>

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><p><strong>Timeline<strong>

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><p><strong><strong>When Caroline is four-and-a-half years old, she declares that she is going to marry Tyler Lockwood.

Well—really, she wants to marry his mom because hello, Carol Lockwood is like her idol. Their names are almost exactly the same, and Mrs. Lockwood is so pretty and so elegant and so _womanly_, and for a very long time Caroline uses her as a model of what to become.

(She's not stupid, even at four-and-a-half. She sees that there are pretty girls who go through school only to stay here in Mystic Falls, and Caroline figures that if she's going to stay, she'll at least secure the best life.)

.

When Caroline is seven years old, she holds Tyler's hand for the first time.

He, of course, screams and yells and she's pretty sure he cries later about cooties. Caroline doesn't care; she held his hand, a _boy_'s, in front of the entire second grade and now Sara from the other class can't say a thing about her lack of action. Besides—Tyler's hand is nice to hold: it's warm and fits hers easily, and Caroline can see it staying there in the years to come.

(But she does think that Tyler's friend Matt might be a better fit. They could make a golden couple, royalty.)

.

When Caroline is ten years old, she cries and cries because Tyler likes Elena.

It was bound to happen eventually, she knows. Tyler was going to like other girls and Caroline was fine with that. It's just—she's never expected it to be _Elena_ with her sweet smile and soft eyes, and how can Caroline even begin to compete with that? Makeup is something that won't work until a few years down the road, and anyway, she thinks that Tyler's looking at Elena for reasons other than beauty.

(It hurts, she realizes. It hurts that even Tyler Lockwood has a heart deeper than hers, because all she has is what's on the surface.)

.

When Caroline is thirteen, she has her first kiss and it isn't with Tyler.

Elena's first kiss is with Matt in a closet at their first boy-girl party, which is, you know, expected. It's just—Caroline always thought _she_ would be the first one to indulge in boys and all that, but even Bonnie's experienced the feel of skin on skin, and Caroline is just…a little left behind.

Caroline's first kiss is in the rain, with a boy whose hair shines gold. It's a summer romance, short-lived but explosive, and she wishes it could have lasted forever.

(She thinks that if she had loved that boy, she could have been anyone, anything.)

.

When Caroline is fifteen, she watches Tyler kiss Vicki Donovan.

Things are mellower now; she's not screaming that she'll be the future mayor's wife or anything. Right now, her priorities are on helping people in whatever way she can, and that means a lot of volunteer work and little future planning.

(And—and it doesn't hurt, watching Tyler kiss Vicki. It's weird, but it doesn't hurt.)

.

When Caroline is seventeen, she falls in love with Damon and Matt and Tyler.

So many things happen in her junior year of high school that Caroline's lost track of how many people have died or how many lives have been changed. She can't remember wanting to marry Tyler or wanting to be like Carol Lockwood (no, not now, never), or what it felt like to kiss that boy with the yellow hair.

Caroline remembers blood and crying, and nights spent screaming with Damon or cuddling with Matt, and she remembers a first kiss with Tyler.

(But most importantly, Caroline remembers wanting more than anything to be human and far away from Mystic Falls.)

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When Caroline is eighteen, she and Tyler help Matt pack his bags.

He has a very, very distant aunt in New York, one he's only heard of. Matt has lines under his eyes and weights on his shoulders, and Caroline doesn't bother to beg him to stay. She loves him, you know, she loves him and he loves her and that's _fine_ but Tyler is around and Matt's cracking from everything.

(Matt's had stress fractures all over him since his dad left. Caroline can only try to smile for him when he leaves and hope that he won't collapse entirely.)

.

When Caroline is eighteen and a half, she graduates high school and Tyler holds her hand.

They made it, somehow, despite missing so much from their normal lives. Caroline shakes her principal's hand, grins at the crowd with its flashing cameras, and steps off the stage with her diploma in hand. She breathes in the scent of flowers and grass—of _life_—and she feels it again, that heavy pang of _if only I were human. If only this were real, really real._

(Tyler grabs her free hand on her way to her mom. He gives her a half-smile, the one that made her stomach fly in the cave, and she knows now that she's already fallen as far as possible for this boy.)

.

When Caroline is nineteen, she runs away with Tyler.

Technically, she's been running since her eighteenth birthday. It's that whole not-aging thing and even though people just don't notice after the Klaus…fiasco, it's still a thing that creates trouble. But now—now Caroline is with Tyler and Tyler is with her, and it doesn't matter that Matt is somewhere in New York trying to forget her (because he loves her, oh how he loves her) or that one day Tyler will die.

(They love each other. Really, they do, and Tyler has given more to Caroline than anyone else ever will.)


End file.
